


S.H.I.E.L.D. employee benefits

by intolaurel



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Kidnapping, Rescue Missions, So yeah, and I believe that I've only used gender neutral terms for reader, both gals and pals can enjoy this, captain america being fluffy with reader, especially in the middle chapters, mentions of fighting and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-07-24 09:12:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7502637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intolaurel/pseuds/intolaurel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when a young intern at S.H.I.E.L.D. finds a weird blood sample? Well, she makes a sensible decission and gets herself kidnapped afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Abduction

You didn't exactly know why, but you had gotten kidnapped.

Okay, you did know why. You were an intern working at one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. labs, doing mostly routine analysis of blood samples from crime scenes. Most of the time there wasn't anything exciting to be found, but last week was a little different. 

You had been doing your normal routine until you had come across a green-ish blood sample. You had stopped to ask your supervisors, but they had told you to treat it the same way as a normal blood sample, "It's probably just contaminated. Nothing to worry about." They had said.

Boy, they were wrong. 

There was DNA to be found in the blood sample, but no known kind of haemoglobin*. At the end of the day you had transferred the DNA sequence** from the PCR machine*** into the main-database. A few minutes later, after the new input had been categorised by the computer the lab suddenly shut down, trapping you and a few co-workers inside. Within ten seconds a team of security guards had surrounded the lab and within ten minutes a few of the lead scientist were standing outside, clearly waiting for something. 

after some more time had passed a special infections unit had appeared. They went into the lab, followed by the scientist and half of the security. 

"Where is sample 167 879 037 02?" One member of the contamination unit had asked.

You looked towards the other lab employees for help. There was no possible way that you could ever remember any sample number, not when they were this ridiculously long. Luckily one of the older employees quickly replied.

"I don't know," she had said, "I'm afraid that I've to check the samples. Was it brought in today." 

The member from the infections unit answered with a simple "yes". And urged her towards the storage freezers whilst the rest of you were told to stay put by a few other security guards. 

Apparently the sample they were asking about was the green sample, and the DNA that was found in it had a sequence that didn't match anything from this earth. The closest match in the database had been with the DNA of Thor, the god of thunder. 

A long and irksome discussion had followed. First with the present staff of the contamination unit, than with the lead scientist, than with the head of the contamination department, and last with a few people who were high up in the in the S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks. 

You had gone home that day tired and much later than usual. After eating a quick meal you had dropped onto your bed and you had fallen asleep instantly.

The next morning you had woken and gone to work as if nothing had happened. You didn't hear anybody talking about the incident, and the sample had been taken out of the database. You were to afraid to ask why, or to pretend anything had ever happened. After all, you were just an intern and you really needed both the work experience and the money that this place offered. 

Now, you were in a completely different situation. 

You were strapped with you hands to an old iron pipe in what you thought to be an old industrial building. There was a large window to the left of you, and pretty much everything else you could see seemed to have been made from either water-stained concrete or rusting steel. 

Outside of the window was a small harbour. When you had first woken up here, your head had been fussy and heavy, but you could remember seeing the sun rise which was quickly followed by what you guessed were fisherman sailing away on old and rusted fisher boats. That must have been about two hours ago, you thought. And apart from the fisherman you had seen no other sign of live inside or outside the building you were in, except from the man who had come in about fifteen minutes ago. 

"You're the intern at the S.H.I.E.L.D. lab?" he had first asked, you had answered with a simple "yes".

"What do you know about blood sample 167 879 037 02?" was his next question.

Because you were terrible at remembering long numbers, you had simply asked "Is that the green sample?"

He had smiled and thanked you for your time before turning around and walking away. You had shouted after him, asked him if they could just let you go, but he simply kept walking. 

Being driven by both anger and hunger you started trying to get your hands out of the chains. You hadn't been at it for long when you suddenly heard a gun shot in the distance which was followed by a wail and a second gunshot. 

You had no idea that fear-induced immobilisation could happen when there was this much adrenaline pumping through someone's body. You stayed silent with your eyes fixed on the only staircase you could see. 

When it stayed quit for a while you relaxed a bit, until you heard another gunshot, and another, and another. 

There were man in different kinds of uniforms running up the stairs now. None of them seemed to pay any attention to you, their eyes were all fixed on the opening of the staircase, and so were their guns. 

The gunshots continued for a while until they got replaced with the sounds of punching. Than it became silent. Really silent. 

The men that had come running up the stairs starting shuffling nervously, hurdling together like a group of penguins. They seemed to be silently talking to each other and after a few minutes a small group of them split of from the rest and started walking down the stairs. 

The fighting noises started again. 

You looked at the group of men still standing at the top of the stairs and noticed that there were just five of them left. After the fighting noised had died down two more of them started walking down the stairs. You didn't think that they made it to the bottom of them alive. 

You heard a strange metallic sound when their heads were still visible and their bodies instantly seemed to drop down the stairs. 

The three men that were left shuffled together even closer, guns still pointing towards the opening of the stairs. 

"Come out if you dare." One of them shouted, but it stayed silent for a while. 

Than there were three gunshots and the men dropped dead nearly simultaneously.

You let out a gasp and closed your eyes in shock. When you heard a pair of footsteps run up the stairs, and after that towards you, you squeezed them only tighter shut. 

"Are you alright?" The words were said in a soothing tone by a man, but you were still to scared to move or open your eyes.

He let out a soft sigh. "I'm Steve Rogers." The man said "But you may know me as Captain America. S.H.I.E.L.D. has sent me here to save you, do you understand?"

You still couldn't move or answer.

"I'm going to free your hands now, is that okay?"

You nodded softly and quickly. He walked around you.

"This is going to make some noise." He said before you heard metal clinking on metal and you felt your bonds relax.

You brought your hands to your chest and opened your eyes. Tears were starting to fall down your cheek and you felt a hand press on your shoulder. You looked up and your gaze was instantly met with a pair of blue eyes.

"I'm going to get you out of here, okay? Can you walk?" He asked

"I... I... I don't think so." You stuttered. 

He placed his shield on his back and picked you up in one swift movement. As you walked out of the building you were met by a group of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. 

"She needs to be taken to the med bay first." He said to a few members of the team as he sat you down in a helicopter. After turning his attention back to you he added "You're save now, they will take care of you."

You had just enough time to mutter a thank you before he walked away and you took of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Haemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells where the oxygen binds to for transportation  
> ** DNA is a string of repeating molecules called nucleotides, there are four different ones (A, C, G and T), the order in which these occur is called the DNA sequence  
> *** A PCR machine is a machine with which the DNA sequence can be found out
> 
> ....
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hoped you guys liked this. Please let me know what you thought, any tips or recomendations that will help me improve my writing are always welcome. I also have a few ideas for prequels / sequels for this story, so if you want more of this just tell me in the comments.


	2. Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A thousand apologies for not uploading this sooner, life caugt up on me and I got really busy. But on a really positive note: I've got the rest of the work written and mostly edited, so You'll get a new chapter every day from now on, until the story is finished (it will end up being around 8 chapters long I think).

The helicopter brought you to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s medical bases where you were met by a team of doctors who made sure that there was no severe physical harm done to you. After you were cleared and you had put on some clean clothes, you were escorted into an interrogation room. 

Funnily enough, the room looked a lot like the ones they always have in those detective-programs on the telly. It was a small, square room, there was a one-way mirror in one of the walls, and in front of it stood a table with a metal chair at either side of it. You sat down in the chair with your back towards the reflective surface and you waited. 

After a while an older S.H.I.E.L.D. officer stepped through the door. 

"Sorry that it took so long, my name's Robert Kells and I've been tasked with clearing you for duty. Would you maybe like some coffee or tea before we start?" He asked whilst sitting down in the chair in front of you. 

The niceness in his voice took you by surprise. 

"Uhm-yeah-well, some tea would be nice, I guess, thank you." You managed to stutter before lowering your head a bit in shame. You were scared, but why? These were your employers, it wasn't like they were going to hurt or torture you or anything... 

right?

"Great, all have one to." The agent said before gesturing to someone who was probably watching you from behind the glass. He continued. "First off, I just want you to know that you're not in any trouble. We just want to know what's happened from your point of few. Just try to stick as close to the truth as possible, and if at anytime you feel that for whatever reason you can't continue to talk, whether that be embarrassment, anxiety, whatever, just tell me so and than continue your story at a point where you feel comfortable. Is that okay?" 

All of this was said in such a sweet and soothing tone that you couldn't help but relax a little. You nodded to answer his question. 

"Okay, now, I do want you to know that this conversation is going to be recorded, but that is only so that we won't have any confusion about your words during our investigation of your kidnappers. Is that also alright by you?" He asked, just as kindly as before.

You lifted your head and managed a little "yes" in response.

"Well than," he said "why don't you tell me what happened?"

"Where do I start?" You asked, because really, you had no idea where to.

"Why don't you start on the last day you remembered coming into work here." 

You drew in a breath and started talking. 

"Okay, well, that would be the 20th of juli. Nothing strange happened during that day here at work, and nothing at home either. I ate dinner and watched television as I normally do and than I went to bed around ten, which I can also remember, and than I can remember....." 

You told him the whole story the best you could. When you were about halfway through someone had come in with tea and biscuits and put it on the table in between the two of you. You had finished your story with only having to stop two times because the memory's that came flooding back were to severe for you to handle right at that moment. 

Robert asked you a few questions after you were finished, like "Was there anything suspicious about any of the boats in the dock?” “Did any of them have unusual amounts of cargo, or strange amounts of people on them?” “Did you see any special markings on the man that came to ask you the question?” “What about on any of the other people?” “Did you hear any weird sounds?" And so on. You answered all of them the best you could, but mostly that meant saying "I don't know". 

Just as you thought that you were never going to get out of here, he told you that those were all the questions that he could think of, and that you could go. He smiled kindly as he helped you out of the room and walked you towards the entrance of the building, where one of your best friends was waiting for you. 

Her name was Lilly and she was also an intern at S.H.I.E.L.D. She practically flew into your arms the second she saw you. 

"Ohw, I was so worried." She chirped whilst she was still squashing your ribcage with her arms. 

"Yeah, why? were you afraid that I was going to get hugged to death?" You replied sarcastically. But she did get the hint and let go of you with a guilty smile on her face. 

You turned around so you were facing Robert, who was standing just a few steps behind you. 

"Yeah, well, thank you, I suppose." You said to him.

"Of course, just doing my job." He said "The two of you will be fine than?" He added.

"I think so, yes." Was your answer before he squeezed your shoulder slightly and walked away. 

"You're actually really lucky, did you know that?" Your friend exclaimed as she was dragging you out of the building towards the parking lot. "There's been a whole lot going on and the labs are getting so many samples from all kinds of different crime scenes, everyone has to work double shifts, but not you apparently, you were given two weeks off, and they will just keep paying you as if you were also working double shifts. It nearly made me wish that I was the one who had gotten abducted." 

"Yeah, it's lots of fun, I can tell you that." But before you could say anymore, your friend cut you off.

"Soooo, I heard you met someone famous, Captain America, what's he like?" She asked as he was unlocking her car.

You waited with answering until the both of you were seated. "Well he's just so very... American, you know?" 

You looked over to your friend and both of you bursted out laughing as she was trying to get her car out of the parking spot without hitting anyone. Somehow, right now, it didn't feel as if you had just been kidnapped and interrogated about it.


	3. Recognition

That feeling of carelessness that you had felt this afternoon was now completely gone. You were sitting on your bed, wrapped in your blankets. Your room was completely dark and the only noises came from the dark streets outside of your tiny apartment. You had woken up from a nightmare for the third time this night. You didn't exactly know what PTSD was, but you had a slight presumption that you currently matched those symptoms perfectly.

You fell back into the mattress again. You thought that maybe you could get another hour of sleep before the sun would come up, but you didn't.

You managed to stay in bed till half past six before you grew to restless. After taking a quick shower and eating a meal that can hardly pas as a breakfast, you went outside. Away from your apartment. You couldn't remember how you had gotten abducted, but you did know that it had happened in your apartment, and the cleanness of it made you uncomfortable. You put on your coat and hoped that the sounds of early-morning Brooklyn would drown the memories out. 

Walking up and down the familiar streets didn't quite calm you down like you had hoped for, it had actually set your nerves on edge even more. but after a cup of coffee in one of your favorite bars a few blocks away from your apartment, you had somewhat felt like you might actually be able to take on the day. After spending half an hour in your favorite corner seat you got up and walked back home again.

As you neared the front door of the apartment complex, you noticed an old motorcycle parked on the sidewalk. You started laughing inside, the thing looked rather expensive and would certainly get stolen within the next hour if the owner didn't move it. ‘Oh well’, you thought, it wouldn't be your loss.

The building didn't have an elevator, since it wasn't exactly new. As you were climbing up the long stairs towards the fifth floor you could hear a man talking to a woman. Asking her things. You could make out the woman's voice, it was one of your neighbors, but the man's voice was more difficult to figure out. You did have the feeling that you had heard it before, but the only thing that came popping up were the memories from your abduction.

The anxiety that came flooding back with it was overwhelming. You sunk away in a corner in one of the platforms between the stairs and waited there for a while. You heard your name being mentioned a few times, both by the unknown man and by your neighbor. This only made your anxiety grow. 

You soon realized that you couldn't stay hidden there forever. It took every ounce of courage that you had, but eventually you pushed yourself away from the wall and slowly started walking the rest of the stairs again.

As you came closer to your apartment you could make out the mans voice a bit better. He had an American accent. You sighed and counted yourself lucky, this meant that it wasn't the kidnapper who had come and asked you questions about that sample. This new knowledge gave you some more confidence that you used to keep on walking towards your apartment door. 

"Oh, I believe she is just coming up now." You heard your neighbor say to the American man. "I'll go and look if it really is her, you can just wait here." 

You could hear the attempted flirtation drip from her voice. Who on earth could this guy be? But before you had any time to ponder over that question, your neighbor appeared at the top of the stairs. 

"It is you! Come up quick, there is someone waiting for you." She ended that shouted sentence with a wink. Why on earth a wink?

When she noticed that you were hesitant she gripped your wrist with and with an annoyed sigh nearly dragged you up the last few steps and around the corner towards your apartment. There you came to a halt. 

In front of you stood a tall, blond guy. He was wearing a distressed brown leather jacket, simple white t-shirt and worn jeans. He had blond short-cut hair and a face that you immediately recognized. It was no one less than Captain America himself. Suddenly you understood the flirting that your neighbor had been doing, and you couldn't blame her. 

"Hey" you said shyly to him.

He grinned and gave you a "Hi" in reply. 

It fell silent and your neighbor was quick to give the two of you some "Obviously much needed time alone." as she said before giving you another wink and disappearing through her front door with a huge grin on her face. 

Being made uncomfortable by the short silence, and his presence, you decided to strike up a conversation yourself.

"I'm sorry." You said as a begin, "I had no idea you would come today. I was out walking." ‘Great conversation starter girl,’ you thought sarcastically to yourself, ‘great starter’. 

"Oh, no, you couldn't have known that I would show up here." he offered as his own apology. "I only decided to come here a few minutes ago as I was driving through the neighborhood towards my own place. I wanted to see how you were doing." His reply was quick and somehow also slightly nervous. Why was this guy nervous, was he aware of who he even was?

"Well, I'm... Fine." You decided to say, but seeing the look of confusion on his face that your answer caused you decided to continue. "I mean, I'm not exactly fine fine, but I'm holding on the best I can, so I think that, considering the situation, can count as fine, for now." You ended your stretched out sentence with a short and shy smile as a means to show him that really you were doing sort of okay, even if you secretly really weren't. 

"Yeah, I know that feeling." He said chuckling. 

And there was the uncomfortable silence again.

"Is that motorcycle outside the building yours?" You tried. Talking was certainly better than, well, not talking. 

"Yeah," he said cheerfully. "You like it?"

This made you chuckle slightly. "Well," you confessed "I don't know much about motorcycles, or any vehicles really, but it does look expensive. And leaving it outside in this neighborhood would certainly see it stolen or otherwise ruined, and that would be a shame, I think. You can put it in the hallway if you like." You said. 

A slightly mischievous smile formed on his face. "To me, that suggestion sounds like you want me to stay." He said whilst gazing down upon you.

"Well, uhm..." You said, thinking about how you were going to talk your way out of this one. "I just thought that maybe, uhm… you would like some tea?" You ended up suggesting. At this he lost his composure and bursted out in a small laugh. 

“Yeah, that sounds nice. I'll be back up in a second." He said after which he started walking down the stairs towards the hallway.

"I'll put the kettle on, you can just push the door open." You yelled after him down the staircases. 

When you unlocked your door and walked towards your kitchen counter you had felt like most of your anxiety had been lifted, but you also knew that that was only because he was around. And even though he would be around for at least the next fifteen minutes or so, you couldn't keep him around forever. You sighed at the realization that you were going to have to see a psychiatrist for your symptoms. You weren't one to ask for help easily.


	4. Questions

When he, Steve as he had told you to call him, had entered your apartment you hadn't expected him to stay long, and neither had he. Both of you had been really surprised when you saw on the clock that it already was eleven and he was still here.

The conversation had started out by him asking you if you had slept at all last night. You had told him truthfully that you had woken up from nightmares a few times. Noticing that he didn't really understand why that was, you had told him that it was because your apartment was still looking the same as when you had fallen asleep the night you had gotten abducted. You just thought that it was strange that nothing had been knocked-over or moved.

He had looked confused "So they didn't tell you anything about what happened, did they?" He had asked you. And when you had answered that indeed, they hadn't, he had told you everything that he had been allowed to tell you.

Apparently your kidnappers were hired by an organization that is obsessed with collecting alien samples, both biological and technical. They wanted to re-create the serum that had turned Steve Rogers into Captain America, and they thought that the key to doing that was extraterrestrial life. Your kidnappers had used a strong gaseous sedative to take you from your apartment without a struggle, which is why everything still stood in the same place.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had first noticed that you were gone when you didn't respond to one of their emergency calls. There had been an emergency protocol set in motion and they were eventually able to track your location because the kidnappers had made the mistake of loading you in a black van that they were able to track to the old harbor building that you were held in through traffic camera's and satellite footage. They had sent Steve with his standard team of commandos to go and rescue you because he had been after them for quite a while and this had actually been the first big lead that they had in the case.

Apparently he had just returned from investigating a promising lead that they had discovered after rescuing you. He wasn't allowed to tell you anything more about it. 

At first he had apologized for that, but you had quickly reassured him that you understood it and that you didn't really want to know what it was exactly anyways. After all, you always found the laboratory work that was required on this sort of cases way more interesting. 

He had let out one of his chuckles, and he had asked you about how you had come to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. You had explained that you were just an intern, and that you were still studying at the S.H.I.E.L.D. science academy. He seemed, or at least pretended, to find this interesting. After that you had talked about many different subjects. You had found that he was actually a really easy guy to talk to, and that he, like you, was born with a huge case of natural shyness. This made the conversation a lot more laid-back than most of your conversations with other people, and you had gotten the feeling that it was the same for him because when you had said with a lot of surprise that it was already eleven he had reacted with a loud "What, really? no way. I don't believe it." 

You had walked down with him towards his motor, which was now safely parked against against one of the walls of the hallway. He had promised to come around again sometime, to see if you were still holding up okay, and after that he had driven off. 

You hadn't expected him to "come around again" as he had said, but you didn't mind. After all, he was the first avenger, and you probably weren't the only woman which he had saved in these past few weeks who was shaken up about the events that had happened before he had come to the rescue. 

It had taken some more courage than you had thought would be necessary, but after two more nights of nearly not sleeping you had finally looked up the numbers of the different therapists that S.H.I.E.L.D. had available to their (ex)employees. So now, a week and a half after "the incident", as you called it, your days existed of visiting your therapist once every two days, visiting your grandmother on the days that you didn't visit your therapist, visiting a different caffe every day after visiting your therapist or your grandmother, and walking around New York before you returned home for the night. 

Going to the therapist was helping. You still weren’t sleeping properly, and you still got all nervous when you were walking around the industrial parts of town, but at least now you had the feeling like you might be able to get over all that and move on. One minor inconvenience was that your therapist, doctor Sommer, kept suggesting that you went out with friends, but all of your friends were currently caught up in their S.H.I.E.L.D. jobs. However, other than that, it was actually going sort of okay right now. And damn you were glad that they just kept paying you, with all the coffee you were currently consuming you could use the extra cash. 

A late walk through the bridge park one day had left you tired and in desperate need of a double espresso. As you were walking past your apartment building on your way to the nearest coffee shop, you noticed an old motorcycle standing in the hallway. Strange you thought, you didn't know that anyone in your building owed one. It wasn't until after you had turned the corner that a thought struck you.

Steve Rogers owed an old motorcycle, and he had said that he would visit again. You let out a nervous sigh and walked back to the entrance, just in time to catch him walking down the stairs. 

The minute he saw you he greeted you with a warm and somehow apologetic smile. "I came to see if you were home." 

"Well, I am now, I was out walking." You offered as an explanation. "Would you maybe like another cup of tea?" The question came out a bit doubtful and you hoped that your tone wouldn't make him recline the offer. 

He answered quickly "I'd like that, but I'm actually here on S.H.I.E.L.D. business. There are some things that they want me to tell you, but I can't do it here."

"Okay, so, back to headquarters?" You asked. In truth you didn't want to go, but you didn't feel like you had much of a choice. 

"Actually I was thinking about going to my apartment. It's also cleared for conversations like that." He said whilst handing you an extra helmet he had with him. "That is, if you're not scared of motorcycles of course." 

The only reply you could think of was "No, not at all.". You quickly ran up to your apartment to get some personal stuff and a different jacket. When you got back down, Steve was already waiting for you on his motorcycle outside on the sidewalk.


	5. waiting

To your big surprise, Steve's apartment wasn't much bigger than yours. Once he entered the living room he set his shield next to the couch and walked around a bookshelf towards the kitchen.

"Coffee or tea?" He asked, "I have to warn you, my coffee's probably better." 

"In that case, coffee will do." You answered 

He stayed quit for a while, and so did you. When he returned with two cups of coffee he started to talk.

"So first of all I want you to know that I do not agree with bringing you into this, however my supervisors leave me no choice." 

"Bringing me into what?" You asked after he had fallen silent again

"The blood sample because of which you were abducted, the green one, well, we did some further tests on it and it does seem to belong to an alien live-form. We have found the same blood on a few crime scenes now and we think that we may know where the creature to whom it belongs is currently hiding out, but they want a scientist to go along with us on the mission so we can do immediate testing on it. Because you already know about the blood, they want it to be you." After this, you thought that he might stop talking now, but he kept rambling on. 

"Personally I don't think that this is a good idea, because there is probably going to be a lot of fighting and I looked into your file and, I'm sorry if you didn't want me to do that, but it said that you had very limited experience with that, and along with it were the notes from your psychiatrist in which she said that it would probably be best if you didn't do any fieldwork until further notice from her, but my superiors don't seem to care, because"

At this you cut him of.

"No, Steve, it's fine." You said whilst clutching the coffee cup a little tighter in your hands. "What are the odds that something will go wrong during the mission?" You asked.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully. "We have no idea what we're going to deal with, so there's no way of telling." 

He had his head lowered and lifted it just enough to look at you. "I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid that you have no choice. I'm really sorry." 

You nodded slowly "It's okay, really, I don't blame you." You said whilst smiling slightly. "When will we need to leave." 

"Soon." He said whilst raising his head a bit more. "But I don't know how soon, they first need to set up a task force that will check the perimeter, and they're also working on getting better satellite footage of the area. But when that's done, which will probable be within the next twenty-four hours, they will want us on the scene nearly immediately. My guess is that we'll have to leave before tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay" you breathed out as an answer. 

"I'm really sorry." He offered. "I really am."

"I know." Was the only thing you could think of as an appropriate answer. Your thoughts were occupied with different things at the moment, like how you were going to survive a mission like that if it did go wrong.

You both sipped your coffee quietly for a while when Steve's phone suddenly rang. He walked a bit into the hallway before answering it, you didn't even bother to try to listen in. When he came back the look on his face was sour. 

"That was HQ." He simply said whilst taking up his coffee again and sitting down on the couch beside you. "They probably think that it is safest if you'll stay here tonight. They're sending an agent to pick up some clothes for you."

"Okay." Was again the only answer you could think of. 

"Hé, are you okay?" He said whilst bumping your shoulder with his.

"I honestly don't know." You felt tears starting to settle in your eyes, and they only got worse when he draped his arm over your shoulder.

"I'll keep you save, I promise." You let out a slight chuckle at his effort to comfort you.

"It's not that I'm afraid that no one will try to protect me," you said, "I'm just afraid that no one can, you know?"

"Yeah, I do." Was his short answer.

The two of you were still sitting next to each other on the couch when a red-haired woman walked into the apartment. In her hands was a bag with your clothing. 

Steve shot up immediately. 

"Natasha," he said, "what are you doing here?" 

"I volunteered to collect her stuff." She said whilst nodding towards you. "It's the only way that I'll have to see you before the mission." 

At this Steve's face changed into one of confusion. "What do you mean?" He asked nearly completely panicking.

"They put me at the head of another mission, somewhere in Europe, I can't come along on this one. Sorry Steve." She finished her sentence of with a short smile. "I have to go now”, she said after a few seconds. Walking over towards one of the chairs, she put your bag down in it after which she turned towards you.

"Well, good luck tomorrow, I put some stuff in the bag that I thought you would find useful to have around here. Try to get some sleep tonight, even though it will probably be nearly impossible. Ohw, and if Steve offers to cook something himself for dinner, recline. He's terrible in the kitchen." She said with a wink to Steve.

"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind." You said with slightly lifted spirits. 

At this Natasha smiled once more and walked out of the apartment. 

"So... Take out than?" You said to Steve once the door had fallen shut.

"Yeah, that's probably the best option." He answered laughingly before taking his phone out again. "Italian or Chinese?" Was his next question. After some discussion the both of you decided on another option: Mexican.


	6. preparation

Steve had gotten the call that both of you had to come down to HQ during breakfast. You quickly shoved the rest of the sandwich in your mouth before walking out of the apartment with him and sitting down on the backseat of his motorcycle again. Steve placed his shield at the front of the motorcycle and the two of you drove of. 

Once you were at HQ, things moved fast. You were given a special outfit which consisted of the most unflattering pants that were ever made and a bullet proof vest. After you had put it on you had been escorted towards a small aircraft where you had waited some time before the rest of the team, including Steve, came walking in. When everyone was on board, the pilot took of and Steve came sitting next to you.

"Okay, so this is the plan." He said to you "Most of the squad goes in first, I go in with them. Simon and Lilly will stay behind with you here. Once the entrance of the building is cleared, I'll go back to get you and the others whilst the rest of the squad goes to inspect the rest of the building. We'll wait behind the front desk until they have found something and than I'll escort you to them. You see that kit over there?" He pointed towards a backpack, you nodded "That's a compact lab kit, they told me that you learned how to use one at the academy." 

"Yeah, yeah I did." You answered. "But what do they exactly want me to test?" You asked, after all a lot of things could be tested with that kit in no time.

"Uhm... They... Wait, I wrote it down." Steve said whilst fishing a folded piece of paper from a pocket in his suit that he handed over to you.

Reading over the piece of paper you chuckled slightly. "Well, now I know why they need a scientist to come along." You said "These aren't exactly your standard biochemistry tests. So you're guessing it's a humanoid creature than?" You asked.

At this every person in the small plane looked at you with a confused look on their face, someone in the row of seats opposite of you asked you why you would think that?

"Well, it's just with the amount of blood they want from it, and measuring the different hormone and protein levels and hemoglobin compositions and all. Not that I think that they will find anything, not with the tests available in that kit. But there should be a cooler in there so I can always take some extra blood samples. It's kinda strange though that they don't want any skin swabs, you know, in relation to the normal skin flora and everything." You looked up from the paper, only to see everyone on the plane still staring at you.

"What do you mean hormone and protein levels?" Steve asked, "Where did you get that from? It doesn't say so on the paper?" 

"No," you said "but I can see it from the different anticoagulants that they want in the different blood samples." 

They were all still staring at you.

"Really, it's nothing strange, everybody with a biochemical background at the academy knows of it." You tried, at this some stopped staring at you.

"Yeah," you heard a girl beside you say, "but you can just remember it."

"Well, yes." You answered "It's kind of like my job to know these things, I would be kind of terrible at it if I didn't" 

The staring of the people on the plane still didn't stop, and it started to make you feel slightly uncomfortable. 

"Why's everyone staring at me like that?" You whispered to Steve after a while.

"Because," he said after visible thinking for a while "You just told us more than our superiors ever would." 

"Oh." Was the only answer you could think of. You weren't really giving long answers with him around.

The pilot called everyone's attention by informing them that the landing zone was only a few minutes away. At this everyone stood up straight, except for the girl to your left and the man sitting across from you. You supposed that they would be the two keeping you company whilst the rest went out to do, well, whatever they were going to do exactly. 

The hatch already fell open before the aircraft had landed, and the man and woman jumped out and ran around a corner. You were left sitting in your chair. When you were sure that the plane really was standing on the ground, you walked over to the portable lab kit and checked it's contents, these things had a reputation of being low on needles and blood tubes, luckily that wasn't the case this time. 

You sat down again and put the backpack down in your lab. The boy tilted his head towards you and asked you if you were nervous, you simply nodded.

"Don't worry, we all are, no matter how many times we've done this." He smiled at the end of this sentence as if that would make the situation somehow better, it didn't. After all, you were sitting there in that stupid chair waiting until Steve, a guy you barely knew but somehow trusted with all your being, came back to tell you that you could go into a building to do experiments on an alien. 

Your stomach started playing up and you felt like you might be sick. This wasn't the time for that.


	7. answers

After what seemed like an eternity, Steve came running around the corner again. The two soldiers that had stayed with you in the plane jumped up and loaded their guns, you took this as your sign to also stand up and swing the backpack containing the lab kit over your shoulder. Steve mentioned something whilst looking around the corner and the other two pushed you out of the aircraft. 

As you were running towards Steve you took a quick look around you. You seemed to be in some sort of old business district, but most of the buildings looked as if they had been abandoned for years. You came to a halt right next to him against the wall he was also leaning on.

"Follow me." He said, and the four of you started running along an empty street. 

You were surprised you were able to keep up with them for that long, but you would be lying if you said that you weren't completely out of breath by the time that you reached the right building at the end of the street. Steve ran in first, cautiously looking around him, you followed close behind and even closer after you than you after Steve came the two soldiers. The front desk Steve had been talking about earlier was placed towards the left of you, and the four of you kneeled behind it. 

Steve brought his hand towards the left side of his head and started talking into what you presumed to be an earpiece. 

"We've reentered the building, does anybody copy?" You heard him say in the earpiece. He repeated himself "We've reentered the building, does anybody copy?" But again, nothing but silence. 

"Shit!" You heard Steve curse to himself, but ever the soldier, he started to carry out new orders immediately. 

"Okay, so here's what we're gonna do. Simon and Lilly, you're gonna stay here with her." He said whilst pointing to you, and when pointing to himself he added; "I'm going to scout the first floor, last I heard there was something up there. Only come upstairs when you hear from me personally, if not, you leave after twenty minutes of waiting. Do you understand?"

"Yes captain." The other two agents said in unison. 

And than he ran away, leaving the three of you behind the desk.

After what seemed like an hour, but what couldn’t be more than five minutes, Steve's voice was heard by the others through their earpieces. They motioned for you to stand up and the three of you made your way over towards the staircases. 

When you reached the bottom of the staircase, The two agents escorting you put their guns up so that they could fire at any moment. They climbed the staircase quickly and you had trouble keeping up. At the flight of the first floor, they stopped in front of a big glass sliding door that had been shattered. They stepped through the frame that was still hanging and made their way through a hallway, you followed. 

The further you walked the sicker you started feeling. Not because of nerves or anything, but because of the huge amounts of fresh blood covering the walls. And the awful smell that was hanging in the air. 

After passing quite a few doors, you heard Steve yell "in here" from on of the rooms. The agents opened the door, and you couldn't believe what you saw sitting inside. 

A green woman. Green as the hulk, but with a surprisingly human posture. 

"She said her name is Gamora." Steve said "She also said that she isn't from this world, that's she's the daughter of Thanos, and that she is looking for the tesseract in his name."

"Exactly, now tell me, where is the tesseract?" The alien woman demanded. 

"Back on Asgard." Steve replied shortly "She has agreed for you to take a few blood samples." He said to you. This snapped you out of your trance. 

You took your backpack of and got to work. The look on her face got more mad and scary after every vial of blood you took from her, and after 6 you were to intimidated to continue. You looked at the glass tubes you had stuffed in the cooling pack, and you could see clearly now that her blood was indeed green. But how?

"So I have your word that you'll leave our planet than?" Steve asked the Gamora. 

"Yes." She sneered back. "There's nothing for me here, so why should I stay." 

"Okay than." Steve said "Follow me, we'll get out of here. The rest should be by the plane by now." 

And just like that, he walked out of the room. 

"We're... We're just going to leave, like that?" You asked 

"Yes." He answered

"Why?" You didn't understand how you could possible just leave her like that. 

"Because this way we won't get orders to take her in." The look on Steve's face was a weird mixture of stern, sorrowful and angry when he said this. This made some sense to you now. Everybody knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. was up to things, and apparently not even their private super soldier trusted them completely anymore. 

Maybe it was time for you to go job hunting again. You thought to yourself as you followed Steve out of the building. But than again, S.H.I.E.L.D. did have some greet employee benefits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys, this was the last chapter. I hope that you liked the story. Please let me know what you thought of it as a whole, and if you have any tips for my writing in general. Also, thank you for reading!


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